Justifying unequal pay

There have been many landmarks in history of the Equal Pay Act 1970 (EPA 1970), but as it reaches late middle age, they seem to be arriving with greater frequency. There were four significant Court of Appeal decisions in 2008, and at least an equal number from the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT). Equal pay cases tend to fall into two broad groups: those that are concerned with essentially preliminary issues, and those that go to the heart of the policy behind the EPA 1970. Recent EAT decisions about the statutory dispute resolution procedures and time limits belong to the former category, and it is unlikely to be long before these issues are addressed by the Court of Appeal.

But last year the Court of Appeal concentrated on cases where the claimants had jumped through all the preliminary hoops. In three cases the Court of Appeal addressed the employment tribunal’s assessment of a pay structure that at first sight indirectly discriminated against women. In